By The AsiaOne Techbot

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It is one of those stories you'd expect to find in a copy of Readers' Digest.

A six-year-old girl who had recently died of brain cancer had secretly left hundreds of love notes around the house for her parents and family to find after her death.

Diagnosed with brain cancer just before her sixth birthday, Elena Desserich was given 135 days to live. Elena lived for 255 days, passing away in 2007.

After she passed away, her parents began finding those little messages tucked in CD cases, between bookshelves and other places in their home.

According to her parents Brooke and Keith Desserich, the notes "just felt like a little hug from her, like she was telling us she was looking over us".

Now, both Brooke and Keith have published a book of Elena's notes, called "Notes Left Behind" and started "The Cure Starts Now", a foundation dedicated to childhood cancers and especially pediatric brain cancer.

The touching story was reported in many newspapers and even made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

But now Netizens are suspecting that the touching story might be a hoax.

Comments left on popular blog neatorama.com, saw plenty of skeptics who were unconvinced that the Desserichs' story was real.

Said a Netizen by the username of 'cuervokate', "As an experienced oncology nurse of 15 years I knew as soon as I read "given 135 days to live" it was a hoax.

"Oncologists, and doctors in general, find it very difficult to give any type of specific time frames to dying pts and for this type of specificity, an exact number of days, is impossible.

"Shame on anyone who would use cancer and/or a child to profit."

Others questioned why Elena's parents never found a single note during Elena's 255 days after she was diagnosed despite the girl having allegedly left hundreds behind.

Said Netizen 'Schorsch', "This means her parents never cleaned up in 255 days? Never found one single note by chance...?"

Another comment from a forum user 'guy', said "I really doubt you would tell your 6 year old she's going to die in 6 months".

An AFP report said that Elena was "too weak to speak" and thus had written the notes to express her love for her parents and sister. The first of these notes were found in a backpack.

But a post on popular world news blogsite celebgalz expressed skeptism about the Desserichs' story as well, reasoning that a girl too ill with cancer to speak would probably be unable to walk around the house and secretly leave notes behind for loved ones.

Some netizens have also expressed concern as to how profits from the proceeds of the "Notes Left Behind" book will be used.

According to the official website of the same name, all US sale author profits from the book will be donated to The Cure Starts Now Foundation.

Netizens, however, have questioned as to what "US sale author profits" mean.

Others however, pointed out that if it might not be all true, at least the story goes towards a good cause. Said Netizen 'Spy' on Lacrosse Forums, "Fake or not the book is making money for The Cure Starts Now which is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for pediatric brain cancer.

"Its for a great cause even if this is all a hoax."